Chap­ter XVI takes place in Le Mans, France, on July 31, 1714, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant chap­ter in Addie’s jour­ney as she revis­its a city that was once famil­iar to her. It’s been more than a decade since her last vis­it, and this time, she returns not as a hope­ful young woman, but as some­one bound by a curse that has altered the very fab­ric of her exis­tence. The absence of her father’s com­fort­ing pres­ence ampli­fies the weight of her soli­tude, and she finds her­self step­ping into a ver­sion of Le Mans that feels com­plete­ly for­eign to her. The city, which once held such vivid mem­o­ries, now feels like a labyrinth, full of faces she no longer rec­og­nizes and streets that seem both unchanged and unrec­og­niz­able, cre­at­ing a dis­so­nance in her heart that she can’t shake.

Le Mans, with its his­tor­i­cal roots and wind­ing alley­ways, now serves as a stark reminder of the pas­sage of time, a time that has seem­ing­ly moved for­ward with­out her. Every step she takes through the city feels like a brush with the past, but one that is increas­ing­ly dis­tant. The once-vibrant mem­o­ries of her ear­li­er years in Le Mans now seem like frag­ments of a dream, dis­tort­ed by the weight of her immor­tal­i­ty. The peo­ple who once pop­u­lat­ed these streets are strangers now, as if they too have moved on with their lives, leav­ing Addie strand­ed in an exis­tence that is sta­t­ic and unchang­ing. This shift­ing land­scape mir­rors Addie’s inner tur­moil, as she is trapped between the past and present, unable to rec­on­cile the life she once knew with the real­i­ty she now faces. Even the sim­ple act of walk­ing through famil­iar streets becomes fraught with exis­ten­tial angst, as she real­izes just how much she and the city have trans­formed over time.

Her dis­con­nec­tion from the world around her deep­ens as she faces a series of small but frus­trat­ing events. A cart near­ly knocks her over, a local woman shoots her a dis­ap­prov­ing look, and she’s struck by the real­iza­tion that Le Mans has evolved into some­thing unfa­mil­iar to her. Despite her efforts to nav­i­gate these obsta­cles, she feels like an out­sider in her own past. But, dri­ven by her need to sur­vive in a world that con­tin­u­ous­ly for­gets her, Addie attempts to find some sem­blance of nor­mal­cy. She stum­bles upon an inn, des­per­ate to find shel­ter for the night, and resorts to steal­ing from the sta­bles to pro­cure some nec­es­sary resources. In this moment of des­per­a­tion, Addie’s deep inter­nal con­flict sur­faces as she resorts to vio­lence to escape after being caught. Using a knife she finds near­by, she injures the sta­ble hand in her attempt to flee, mark­ing a trag­ic but nec­es­sary response to the cir­cum­stances.

How­ev­er, as she nurs­es her own wound, Addie expe­ri­ences a stark reminder of her immor­tal­i­ty. Mirac­u­lous­ly, her phys­i­cal injury heals almost instant­ly, an unset­tling yet famil­iar occur­rence that reminds her of the unnat­ur­al pact she made. The heal­ing process high­lights the inher­ent para­dox of her existence—she can­not tru­ly die, yet she can­not tru­ly live either. The phys­i­cal heal­ing of her wounds becomes a metaphor for her emo­tion­al scars, which remain ever-present and unhealed despite her mirac­u­lous recov­ery. This super­nat­ur­al restora­tion only serves to under­score her iso­la­tion and the emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal toll of her curse, which con­tin­u­al­ly denies her the human con­nec­tions that she so des­per­ate­ly craves.

By the time Addie leaves Le Mans, the city that once held such sig­nif­i­cance for her now feels dis­tant and cold. There is no phys­i­cal evi­dence of the wounds she endured—no marks to show the vio­lence she suf­fered, no reminder of the ordeal. But the emo­tion­al scars remain, deep­en­ing her under­stand­ing of the cru­el real­i­ty of her exis­tence. This city, once a place of mem­o­ries and moments, now sym­bol­izes the pro­found lone­li­ness and iso­la­tion that define her immor­tal­i­ty. She is caught in a cru­el loop, con­stant­ly mov­ing through the world, but nev­er tru­ly leav­ing any impact or con­nec­tion behind. As she walks away, there is a deep­ened sense of res­ig­na­tion, as she con­tem­plates the nature of her exis­tence and the impli­ca­tions of the curse that keeps her from ever being remem­bered. Despite her immor­tal­i­ty, she is trapped in an eter­nal cycle of soli­tude, her every effort to make a last­ing con­nec­tion under­mined by her inabil­i­ty to leave a mark on the world. In this chap­ter, Addie’s jour­ney through Le Mans encap­su­lates the pro­found sense of loss and the unyield­ing strug­gle for iden­ti­ty and con­nec­tion that shapes her life.